When discussing non-Baptists who influenced religious freedom, Thomas Jefferson has to be mentioned. He was without doubt the Baptists' unparalleled, most loved political figure. To them, he was a pantheon of one.
A persistent legend involves the influence Baptists had on Jefferson in the years before the Revolution. Dolly Madison, late in life, supposedly confirmed that Baptists influenced Jefferson. She remembered him saying it was a Baptist church from which his views were gathered.
Familiar with a Baptist church near his home, he let its democracy influence his thinking of a pattern for the colonies. He allegedly said Baptist church government is the only form of pure democracy in the world. He concluded it would be the best plan of government for the colonies.
Andrew Tribble served as Pastor of the small Baptist church. It met monthly. Jefferson attended its meetings for several consecutive months, and had Tribble in his home to discuss Baptist philosophy of self-governing. Thus says the folklore.
The Baptist/Jefferson love affair is complicated to unravel. Jefferson's opponents accused him of being an atheist. He refuted these claims, and through all the accusations against him, Baptists stayed true to him. They were tired of being persecuted, and considered him their ideal statesman, though his religious views were diametrically opposed to theirs.
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